[Brother Tim]

My son's name is Roy. He is an MRAP driver with the 351st MPs in Mosul. Below is part of a note I just received today from him: [some parts redacted and my comments in brackets]

Hello Mom & Dad,

I'm trying to catch up on communications. All sorts of people have
been emailing and messaging me and my internet was down for a couple
of days due to an incident in the city which triggered commo blackout.

In any case, I am doing ok. I am more sore than I've ever been in my
life, even basic. This heat is intense. We are in the hundred+ range
every day now and no rain in sight. The dust is even more obnoxious
now. We have been doing PT pretty hard lately, since there is another
PT test coming up. [Roy has a bad knee which prevents him from getting the 2 mile run completed on time.]

Our team is experiencing some drama because [his gunner] has decided to become
a slacker lately. [the team sgt] is really upset with him. He may get pushed to another team.

I might get promoted to Corporal too, though being gone those 2 weeks,
I missed the chance at one slot that was open. Pray I get another
shot because it would be huge points towards promotion to sergeant,
since its a junior NCO slot in wartime. [The team sgt] apparently
recommended me for the slot, but since I was gone, it got given to
another.
...

Well, that's all that is really going on over here. We are doing
missions 6 days with 1 off, 5 days with one off, 6 days with 1 off and
so on. They are talking about making us go to 18 hour days too. This
whole June 30th date has got everything in a jumble. The Iraqi
government is starting to make transitions and the local government is
moving things around. Some changes good for us, others, not so much.
That's all I can say about it right now, but just keep the Iraqi
Police Chiefs and their advisory councils in prayer too.